It’s a harsh truth I’m realizing after last night having fainted in the bathroom at a braves game. Good thing it was the 755 club bathroom, or I don’t think I would have ever recovered from having my face smashed against those other awful bathroom floors. Of course, minutes later I picked myself back up and felt perfectly fine and was confused to why a group of women were huddled around me with way too many questions about whether I had too much to drink or if I was pregnant. They proceeded to wipe away my cold sweat and didn’t leave until the EMT arrived.  Real motherly women.  It was altogether strange and embarrassing having that much attention on me. I’m not sure what’s the cause of it, but I’m convinced that either way I need to live a more balanced life and have a healthier lifestyle.

Coincidentally, I’m in book three of Eat Pray Love, where Liz Gilbert is looking for balance in Bali, and I was going to blog about how interesting I found her journey to be.  I’m looking for a different kind of balance, but balance all the same.  I’m almost finished so that I can watch the movie!

So yeah, today I am giving my mind and body some rest.  Starting with prayer and meditation and a balanced breakfast.  Maybe I’ll catch up on reading some books. Watch a little tv.   And perhaps take a walk around the neighborhood if it’s not too hot.  Maybe, the hubby and I will even go on a date after the shoot.

Lucky for me, I met Nicole of Peachtree Weddings and Events while photographing Melinda and Ben’s wedding, which was a few months before my very own wedding.  I had never seen a wedding run so smoothly before, I’ll even throw in, in my life.  It’s not that nothing went wrong, it’s just how quickly she took care of everything, that it came unnoticed.  I was very impressed.  All up until that point, we had decided that we would take care of the wedding on our own.  I mean, c’mon, we’re wedding photographers.  We’ve worked in the industry long enough to know the ins and outs of a wedding.  A lot of the times we emd up “coordinating” the day anyways.  We can handle it, right?  The other option was having an organized friend with some wedding experience coordinate, but even then, I’d probably still be back seat driving the thing.  I had witnessed one too many mistakes and one two many stressed-out brides at weddings, and it left me with an unsettling feeling that I just might go bridezilla on someone.  This would not be ideal, especially for someone who considers themselves far, far from bridezilla, but I could already start seeing the inner monster creeping out.  It’s interesting what stress can do to a person.

Anyhow, after several conversations about wedding budget, finally I convinced Jacob to have Nicole coordinate the wedding, and I am so very happy I did.  I am really thankful that I was able to have the wedding of my dreams and to actually enjoy it.  I didn’t have to keep up with a million tasks, pick up any phone calls, nada.  I got to enjoy the day.  So thank you, Nicole!  We’re very grateful to have met you.  Happy Wednesday!

It’s always a lot of fun to see the dynamics between siblings.  Christiana is a ball of energy and very free-spirited.  She’s considered the wild one out of the two.  One minute we were shooting, and the next she was chasing after squirrels.  And then we were suddenly chasing after her… AND the squirrels.  Zane, on the other hand, is much more laid back, but also very sweet and playful.

Zane and Christiana wanted the chance to get behind the camera.  I caught a few while Christiana was in action.

At the end, we did a few shots of just Angela and Lee since they rarely get a chance to have photos of just them two.

Back to real life.  It wasn’t all a dream.  It appears that I am indeed married.  Everything happened so fast that it seems unreal.  Any moment now I’ll wake up from the dream and be back to what I had been used to for 27 plus some years of my life – single, carefree, perhaps even careless.  Then again, every day has passed since, and I’m still married.  Weird!  Maybe that movie inception still has me messed up.   For sure that movie has messed me up.

I don’t feel like a different person, but I feel a tremendous internal pressure that I’m somehow supposed to be.  Somehow I’m supposed to be this amazing wife who is all of a sudden tidy and organized, cooks feasts for her husband, is hospitable to all the guests she has over, and the list can go on for miles.  I even cooked my first recipe from my first recipe book my girlfriends gave me as a wedding gift.  Mom’s cucumber recipe.  And I even cleaned the bathroom in such an OCD manner.  These things are all very uncharacteristic of me, and I don’t feel like myself.

I can’t quite figure out what’s bugging me.  I’ve been up late at night with a million questions running through my head all pointing back to that big “who am I?”  Maybe I’m afraid of failing as a good wife and who knows why I’m worrying about this even before this new chapter has really started.  Worrying is also very uncharacteristic of me, because I tend to pretend the stress just isn’t there.  Man, this is going to be one scary, new chapter of my life.  Correction: Our lives.

Well, enough about my thursday thoughts.  Thought I’d deliver them with some beautiful photos from Fiji.  Oh, how I miss Fiji.  Now that was really a dream.

Here’s Hayley and Ross:

Will be posting Hayley and Ross tomorrow.  If you would like to do a session during your honeymoon, contact Jacob for special rates and details at jacob@estherjulee.com.

This was the plane we rode to the island.  Quite the experience.  We had six people total on the plane including the two pilots.

The airport in Savu Savu was not too much larger than a garage:

Here are some photos of the experience at the Koro Sun Resort:

We stayed in the edgewater villas, the one farthest left.

Here’s the gorgeous view from our balcony.  Even at night, I could stay out there for hours gazing at the stars.  It was incredible.

Jumping right off our balcony into the crystal, clear (and COLD) water!

Some photos with our new underwater camera Jacob got me as a wedding gift.  Let’s see how the Canon Powershot D10 does.  This is me at bat island.

It’s amazing how many different kinds of starfish there are.  I’ve never seen the blue ones, ones that look like spiders, the round, puffy ones.  Chime in if you know their actual names.  haha  I learned to get over my fear of fish.  Somewhat.  The first trip snorkeling, I was hyperventilating and biting down on my mouthpiece so hard the entire time that my teeth hurt for days after.  You gotta watch out for the big, ugly fish.  They bite!  The second trip wasn’t too bad.  I went, I saw, I conquered.

What made the trip most worthwhile was that we got to meet a lot of the Fijian natives, and by the end, we really felt like we were part of their family.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt so sad saying our goodbyes leaving a hotel/resort.  Getting to know the staff and the other honeymooners really made our honeymoon so much better.  VINAKA!  Thank you everyone at Koro Sun that made our stay really special!   We hope that one day we can see you all again.

Lastly, here’s one of our self-timer portraits.  We wouldn’t be photographers otherwise.

If you want to see more photos from our trip, they’ll be on facebook.  We even did an impromptu shoot with two of the other wonderful couples we met in Fiji during our trip.  I’ll be posting photos from their shoot in the next two days along with some of my wedding inspiration.  Also, after we got back from Fiji, we packed up our bags again for DC to shoot a rehearsal dinner, wedding, and family session two days after.  I’ll be posting those in the coming weeks as well!

Moce! (See ya later/Goodbye, pronounced Mothé)

When I was doing some research on one of the organizations we partnered with, I saw so many familiar faces of the children we had spent time with.  I cried and begged Jacob for us to sponsor all the kids… Yes, all 100 of them.  Of course, being the practical one, he told me we can sponsor one child and maybe more as we are financially able to make that kind of commitment.  I genuinely believe that we are blessed to be a blessing, and there is nothing more rewarding to me than knowing that another person’s basic needs will be taken care of because of a small donation of $40/month.  That’s like not eating out four times a month.

After much thought, we  decided to continue running a promotion called Hope for Haiti.  We will also be selling prints.  Will put more info on the blog about that later, but if you’re interested, you can inquire (jacob@estherjulee.com) for prints and gallery wraps.  Half of all we receive will go directly to funding our next trip down to Haiti, and the other half will go towards the child sponsorship program.

Can look at these faces and tell me you don’t want to sponsor them? :)  You can also sponsor your own child here.

We went to three different orphanages and did some handyman work, built seesaws, played with the children, distributed food and tents to a mountain village, hung out with former gang leaders, pimps, prostitutes…  all the misfits in society that Jesus would hang out with, and I fell in love with them all.  I left a part of my heart in Haiti, and I can’t wait to go back and see everyone.  If you’d like to support my next trip, you can get more info here. We’re continuing to do the summer promotion for Haiti.

Here was an orphanage that was destroyed from the earthquake:

The gravesite for the seven children that died:

Something so simple as taking a photograph brought many smiles to the kids at the orphanage.

We are blessed to be a blessing to others.  We are to be a river and let the blessings flow through us.  Not a reservoir.  Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more (Luke 12:48)

One of the organizations we partnered with, International Crisis Aid, also had child sponsorship programs, and through them I was able to sponsor my first child! :)  He is the boy to the right.  He was one of the first kids that came up to me and grabbed my hand.  He was always so full of joy and laughed and smiled a lot.  You couldn’t not fall in love with him.  Giving up my engagement ring to meet these kids was the best decision I ever made.  I really don’t even think about it anymore.  If only I was ready to adopt, I totally would have taken him home.  I wish I had the resources to sponsor all of the children there, but I’m in no place to do that.  You can also be a sponsor for $40/month to make sure that these children’s basic needs are being met with International Crisis Aid.  I want to see healthy kids when I go back!

The flower girl was way adorable.  She was cutting out paper hearts other shapes out of construction paper to give to Vanessa as wedding gifts.

So crafty!  The money holder was shaped like a cake.

The kiss

But what was even more priceless was the moment right before the pastor announced the kiss.  I’ve never seen a couple THIS excited to kiss! :)

Her Aunt Jane is a sous chef at the Ritz in Orlando, so she made the green chiffon cake with strawberry filling along with the chocolate eiffel tower and other truffles.

I did something a little different for this blog and asked Vanessa a few questions about her day.

What was your absolute part of the day?

It was the part where Mark sang to me.  Not only was it a COMPLETE surprise, but he never ever sings to me one-on-one despite the fact that he has such a nice voice—I think it’s just too cheesy/embarrassing for him, and he will strictly only sing praise songs in front of a church…which is why it was especially meaningful to me that he would do that in front of an entire crowd.  And it felt incredibly personal because we were just looking at each other the entire time.  I really felt like the luckiest girl in the world in that moment.

This is the custom art guest book we made for them.  Love the way they turned out. :)  Want alternative guest book ideas? Get them here.

Check out Mark and Vanessa’s trailer from Three Ring Media.  Jeremy and the crew did a fantastic job with the same day edit, and it was such a pleasure working with them.  I know Vanessa was ecstatic about their work and she was really happy with her decision to book them as her videographer.

Any advice you’d give other brides?

My advice is to not stress over the little details too much, but instead delegate it to people and the details will take care of themselves. And even be a nice surprise at the end of the day when you see it all put together.  Lastly, take little moments in the day to close your eyes and take deep breaths, and remember what this day is really about, marrying your true love.

Venue: Druid Hills Baptist Church, Omni Hotel Atlanta
Photography: Esther JuLee Photography
Videography: Three Ring Media
Bride’s Dress: Jolie Bridal (from Wedding Angels, ask for Shelby!)
Shoes: M by Marinelli
Flowers: Flowerbangs

Entrance Song: “Let’s go” by Lil Jon because the Gator basketball players enter to it before a game. They both graduated from UF.
First Dance: “You and I” by Michael Buble, which Mark’s brother Brian sang (awesomely!)
Father/Daughter Dance: “Visions” by Cliff richard, selected by him as a song special to him
Mother/Son Dance: “Song for Mama” by Boyz II Men is just the best mama song out there.

The day after we got back from Miami, Minna and my bridesmaids did a fabulous job putting together my red carpet themed bridal shower.  I was in awe.  I couldn’t believe how much work went into all the little details.  Earlier that day I was frustrated with having a wardrobe and make-up malfunction.  Then the traffic.  People cannot drive in the rain!  I was worried I’d show up at the bridal shower a complete bridezilla after having such a bad day, but as soon as I stepped in the front door and saw the red carpet, my heart just melted.  Sangria also helped, too. ;)  The food was incredible.  Not only beautifully set up, but very, very tasty.  Good food + good people.  Couldn’t have asked for a better bridal shower.  Thank you Minna, Hsiao, Kate, and Carol for putting together a wonderful shower.  Thank you all who came.  I hope everyone had a great time.  I know I did.  I am really blessed to have you all in my life.

Jacob and Saegye were our handymen that stopped by to setup the photobooth for us.  Do you like our logo?

My bridesmaids. <3  Aren’t they beautiful?

All the rest of the photos will be on facebook.  Tomorrow, I’ll be blogging Vanessa and Mark’s wedding. :)  Then we’re heading off to Haiti on Saturday.  Please keep us in your prayers and see you in 10 days!